Mazmur 5:4

5:4 Certainly ¹  you are not a God who approves of evil; ² 

evil people ³  cannot dwell with you. ⁴ 

Mazmur 37:33

37:33 But the Lord does not surrender the godly,

or allow them to be condemned in a court of law. ⁵ 

Mazmur 37:35

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ⁶ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ⁷ 

Mazmur 37:40

37:40 The Lord helps them and rescues them;

he rescues them from evil men and delivers them, ⁸ 

for they seek his protection.

Mazmur 75:4

75:4 ⁹ I say to the proud, “Do not be proud,”

and to the wicked, “Do not be so confident of victory! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 104:35

104:35 May sinners disappear ¹¹  from the earth,

and the wicked vanish!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Praise the Lord!

Mazmur 125:3

125:3 Indeed, ¹²  the scepter of a wicked king ¹³  will not settle ¹⁴ 

upon the allotted land of the godly.

Otherwise the godly might

do what is wrong. ¹⁵ 

[5:4]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[5:4]  ² tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”

[5:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).

[5:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.

[5:4]  sn Only the godly are allowed to dwell with the Lord. Evil people are excluded. See Ps 15.

[37:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord does not abandon him into his hand or condemn him when he is judged.” The imperfects draw attention to the Lord’s characteristic behavior in this regard.

[37:35]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ⁷ tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[37:40]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry on the generalizing tone of the preceding verse.

[75:4]  ⁹ tn The identity of the speaker in vv. 4-6 is unclear. The present translation assumes that the psalmist, who also speaks in vv. 7-9 (where God/the Lord is spoken of in the third person) here addresses the proud and warns them of God’s judgment. The presence of כִּי (ki, “for”) at the beginning of both vv. 6-7 seems to indicate that vv. 4-9 are a unit. However, there is no formal indication of a new speaker in v. 4 (or in v. 10, where God appears to speak). Another option is to see God speaking in vv. 2-6 and v. 10 and to take only vv. 7-9 as the words of the psalmist. In this case one must interpret כִּי at the beginning of v. 7 in an asseverative or emphatic sense (“surely; indeed”).

[75:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not lift up a horn.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). Here the idiom seems to refer to an arrogant attitude that assumes victory has been achieved.

[104:35]  ¹¹ tn Or “be destroyed.”

[125:3]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[125:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “a scepter of wickedness.” The “scepter” symbolizes royal authority; when collocated with “wickedness” the phrase refers to an oppressive foreign conqueror.

[125:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “rest.”

[125:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so that the godly might not stretch out their hands in wrongdoing.” A wicked king who sets a sinful example can have an adverse moral and ethical effect on the people he rules.